HUMAN GRANULOCYTIC EHRLICHIOSIS: NORTH CENTRAL U.S.

描述：人粒细胞埃立克体病（HGE）是一种新出现的蜱传 急性发热性疾病。HGE的代理人与HGE密切相关或相同 马病原体马埃立克体，并通过肩突硬蜱传播， 传播莱姆病和巴贝西虫病的蜱虫。所述HGE 病原体感染血液多形核中性粒细胞，导致中性粒细胞减少， 血小板减少症HGE可能是一种轻度至潜在致命的疾病。HGE是 1994年首次在明尼苏达州和威斯康星州被描述， 在美国已经描述了400例病例。 HGE常发生于儿童，其发生率和严重程度随年龄增长而增加。 HGE的年龄特异性发病率和我们庞大的老龄化人口， 潜在的重大公共卫生问题， 后果这一新出现的公共卫生问题突出了以下方面的重要性： 早期诊断和治疗以预防感染并发症，以及 针对高危人群开展预防和控制研究。的 在本申请中提出的研究被设计为帮助实现上述目标 通过分析HGE在美国中北部的流行病学， 具体目标是：调查白尾鹿服务于 作为HGE制剂的大型哺乳动物储存库，并确定小的 HGE试剂的哺乳动物储库。

DESCRIPTION: Human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) is an emerging tick-borne acute febrile illness. The agent of HGE is closely related to or identical to the horse pathogen Ehrlichia equi and is transmitted by Ixodes scapularis, the same tick that transmits the agents of Lyme disease and babesiosis. The HGE agent infects blood polymorphonuclear neutrophils resulting in neutropenia and a thrombocytopenia. HGE may be a mild to potentially fatal disease. HGE was first described in Minnesota and Wisconsin in 1994 and subsequently more than 400 cases have been described in the U.S. In contrast to Lyme disease which frequently occurs in children, the rates and severity of HGE increase with age. This age-specific incidence of HGE and our large aging population presents a potentially major public health problem with corresponding economic consequences. This emerging public health problem highlights the importance of early diagnosis and treatment in preventing complications of infection, and targeting of prevention and control studies to populations at highest risk. The research proposed in this application is designed to aid in achieving the above goals by analyzing the epizootiology of HGE in the North Central U.S. Our specific aims are: to investigate the hypothesis that white-tailed deer serve as a large mammal reservoir of the agent of HGE and to identify the small mammal reservoirs of the HGE agent.